Souls and Shadows
by NinjaTerra
Summary: "I need your help." The four words a hero can never, ever ignore. When Alfred F. Jones is visited by a time traveler from the future, he learns that there are other monsters out there besides the ones in horror movies and video games.


**NinjaTerra: Yay! My first ever Hetalia story! Well, if you don't count my HetaOni oneshot. Either way, it's my first Hetalia multi chapter fic. To any new readers of mine, welcome! I hope you enjoy the story. :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. Never have and never will. Now that that's out of the way, let's begin!**

Ch. 1: The Shadow Man

Do you ever get the feeling that you're being followed? You know, it's that feeling that makes all the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, and you can practically feel unseen eyes watching your every move. You begin to get paranoid and your heart starts beating at a mile per minute. Do you know that feeling? Well, that's what I'm feeling right now.

I glanced anxiously over my shoulder for what felt like the thousandth time. _Nothing there,_ I thought as I rolled my eyes. _Same as the last time and the time before that and the time before that… _Sighing, I shoved my hands into my jean pockets, shivering against a sudden gust of cool, night air. I slowly meandered my way up the street to my house. The road was dark and empty, as it usually is at 10 PM in the small neighborhood. In my opinion, the desolated streets at night always made the area seem really eerie. Still, Matthew liked quiet neighborhood, so this is what we decided on. Oh yeah! Matthew is my twin brother who I have been living with for a little over a year now. We had somehow managed to save up the money to buy our own house and immediately loved the sense of freedom it gave us knowing we had a home of our own. It's nice to have our own place, though we still visit our parents during the holidays.

It took me a moment to realize that I had stopped walking. _Hmm. Guess I got a bit lost in my thoughts. _I started making my way towards our house at the end of the block once again when I heard a single, sharp sound. _SNAP! _My head spun back so fast that, for a moment, my whole world was spinning. After I stopped swaying from the dizziness, my eyes began to dart down the black road behind me. And saw…nothing. A small sigh escaped my lips as my body began to relax. _I really am paranoid, _I thought. _I'm Alfred F. Jones! I'm the Hero! Hero's shouldn't be scared like this! They're supposed to be brave! _Shaking my head in a vain effort to clear my mind, I pulled my leather jacket closer around my body and quickened my pace as I continued forward. Before I knew it, I was moving at an all-out sprint toward the medium-sized, mocha colored house at the end of the block. Reaching the front of the building, I gripped the door knob tightly and flung the door open.

"Maple!" I heard a surprised and alarmed voice yell from somewhere else in the house. Slamming the door behind me, I leaned up against the wall, taking deep, slow breaths. I heard the sound of approaching footsteps coming from the living room, and then my brother's head popped around the corner. Mattie's slightly curly, dark blond hair framed his worried looking face and his unique violet eyes were shining with concern behind a pair of thin framed glasses. "Al, what's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked, walking over to me. Having calmed down a ton, I smiled widely at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Of course, bro! Why wouldn't I be?" I laughed loudly, causing Matthew to smile softly.

"Well, that's good," he said in his oddly quiet voice that he has. Suddenly, I smelt a delicious aroma wafting in from the kitchen. I turned to Matthew, a knowing grin spread across my features.

"Hey, are those pancakes I smell?" I asked, still grinning. The violet eyed teen smiled brightly back at me.

"Yeah. I just finished making them. Great timing, eh?" I nodded and followed my twin into the kitchen to get some of the delicious food. A note about my brother: He can make some of the best pancakes in the world! I'm not kidding! The second he handed me a plate full of the syrup-coated goodness, I immediately began attacking it with my fork. I closed my eyes in delight as I shoved the wonderful pancakes into my mouth. _This is so good…_

"Alfred…" My eyes snapped open as I heard a soft voice call my name. Glancing up at Matthew, I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Did you say something, Mattie?" I asked. The other teen raised his eyebrow in response and gave me a questioning look.

"No. I didn't say anything? What are you talking about?" he asked. I shook my head and waved my free hand at him.

"Never mind, bro. I must have just imagined it." _Great, _I thought. _Now I'm hearing things. This is really getting out of hand. _I hoped that maybe this odd paranoia would be one of those one day things. I mean, there's nothing there. Why am I getting so worked up over this?

"Alfred…" My head sprung up and my eyes were immediately on alert. _OK. I had definitely heard something that time…_ My eyes gazed around the room, trying to find were the strange voice was coming from. _Maybe it's just Braginski trying to mess with me. I don't know how he'd do it, but I know he has it out for me. This seems like something that creep would do… _Then, my eyes stopped on a form that seemed so out of place in our brightly lit kitchen. A dark, black shadow stood in the corner of the room, its figure human like in shape. The eerie thing was that Mattie and I were on the other side of the room. There was no way either of us was making that shadow. I could feel my heart begin to involuntarily quicken its pace. Then, the form did something that made my blood run cold.

It waved.

It was just a small shake of the wrist, but it was enough to send my mind totally over the edge. _W-what's going on? Am I seeing things? Am I going crazy? I really don't want to be insane! Heroes can't go mad! Oh God…_

"A-Alfred? Are you OK?" Matthew's soft, worried voice caused me to jump slightly. I had momentarily forgotten he had been in the room. I turned my head to face him and gave him a faux smile.

"Yeah, Matt," I said, fighting to keep my voice even when I was panicking so much on the inside. "Of course I'm fine! You worry too much!" My twin didn't look all that convinced and raised an eyebrow at me.

"You were staring at the wall for a while. Is there something over there?" Matthew moved over towards me, trying to get a better view at whatever I had been looking at. "Um…Al? There's nothing there," the violet eyed teen said, staring in the direction that I had seen the strange form. Spinning around, I realized that he was right. I let out a breath that I didn't know I had been holding. _Maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me. I'm not crazy. I've just been a bit stressed out today so I let my imagination get the best of me. Everything's fine. _Then, I noticed Matt looking at me expectantly, obviously waiting for me to say something. I let out a small laugh and moved a hand to scratch the back of my head.

"Yeah. Sorry, bro. I guess I just got a bit lost in my thoughts, huh? Sorry for freaking you out or whatever." Matthew's questioning look slowly faded away and he smiled gently at me.

"It's fine, Al. You look a bit tired, though. Maybe you should get some rest," the teen said softly. I was about to protest when I paused. Maybe sleep was a good idea. Maybe this whole paranoia thing would be gone after a good night's rest.

"Hm…That does sound nice. Maybe I should hit the hay. Thanks for the pancakes, Mattie," I said grinning brightly. Mattie grinned back as I left the room.

Our house was a two floor, two bedroom building that was perfect for the two of us. One of the bedrooms was on the main level and was at the end of a small hallway that came off of the kitchen. That was Matthew's room. My room, on the other hand, was in the basement. Walking down a small flight of stairs, I came into what Mattie and I like to call our "Man Cave". The room's wall were painted a cool red color and were covered with tons of different posters, mostly ones of super heroes and football players (Mine) and Canadian hockey players (Mattie's). Despite moving to America a few years ago, Matthew is still very patriotic to his home country. You see, our parents are actually divorced. They have been for many years now. After the two of them split, my mom decided that she wanted Matthew to go with her to Canada, her birth country, while I stayed with Dad in America. When they were still married, Mom had moved from Canada to live with my dad here in good old USA, but after they got divorced, she went back to live with her own relatives back in the north. Matthew and I still kept in contact through phone calls and letters and we even got to visit each other sometimes, but it was still kind of sad to be living on opposite sides of the border. Imagine my excitement when I found out he was going to move to America! After spending over a year in the same house together, it had begun to feel like we had never been apart.

Also in the room was a large TV that was surrounded by all our gaming consuls and the game disks. Don't let his sweet looks fool you; Matthew is merciless when it comes to gaming! The TV was also surrounded by a half circle made up of comfy, dark brown couches and arm chairs. Other things in the room included a bar, a mini fridge, an electric guitar, a drum set, a DDR mat, and some other random stuff. I passed by all of this stuff as I made my way to my own bedroom on the other end of the room. My door was in the back corner of the room and, for some reason, was slightly ajar. _That's weird, _I thought. _I thought I closed my door earlier. I doubt Matthew would have been in my room while I was out. _Trying to shake of the uneasy feeling that was unintentionally stirring in my chest, I pushed open the door fully to allow myself into the room.

My bedroom was fairly moderate in size and painted a nice blue color, while the carpet was sort of a gray-brown. My bed, adorned with a blue comforter that matched the walls, was pushed into one of the corners to allow more walking space in the room. A dark, mahogany desk was pressed up against another one of the wall and held my prized laptop computer on top of it. Random comic books, empty soda cans, and wrinkled articles of clothing littered the floor and reminded me that I had been told by Matthew to clean my room earlier today. _I can do that tomorrow, _I thought lazily, walking over to my bed and collapsing onto it, not bothering to change out of my jeans and T-shirt that I was been wearing.

I could feel my eye lids getting heavy, and I was about to let sleep over come me when I heard a sudden noise from nearby. _CRUNCH! _My half closed eyes snapped fully open and I sat up with a jolt at the sound. Earlier, I had had a similar reaction to the snapping sound I had heard outside. This time, though, I wasn't just being paranoid. Because this time, there was definitely something else in my room with me.

I gazed, wide eyed, at the dark figure standing before me. It was the same silhouette that I had seen previously in the kitchen. The shadow was moving by my doorway, its…"face", I guess, was angled downward, apparently looking at the empty Coke can I'm guessing it had stepped on that had caused the noise.

"Dang it. I should have been looking where I was going," it whispered in a soft voice which only caused my eyes to widen further. _Oh my God! There's a freaking ghost in my room! This is like that horror movie that Kiku and I watched last Friday! Oh God! I'm too young to die! _My mind was swimming as I continued to stare at the dark figure before me. Moving what I assumed was its head to look at me, the ghost (for that's what it had to be) seemed to have noticed my obvious panic. My heartbeat quickened considerably as it reached out a hand towards me and moved in closer. "Just calm down, Alfred-"

"How do you know my name?" I screamed, inching away from the figure. A sound which must have been a sigh came from the shadow and it stopping moving.

"Let's just say that I'm actually someone you know very well," the strange ghost said softly. If possible, my eyes only widened more as I took in this information.

"Wait! Don't tell me you're Ivan Braginski! I mean, as far as I know he's still alive, but I would totally expect him to come back and haunt me in the afterlife. Though, you don't sound Russian. And you're a bit too short to be Ivan." _Still, _I though as I turned to the ceiling with a questioning expression, _its voice does sound a little familiar. _ I looked back down again to see the ghost face palm at the words I had just said.

"I'm not a ghost," it muttered. The shadow made a move to sit next to me, but I scooted farther away.

"How do I know you're not lying?" I questioned, still a lot more nervous than I was letting on. "For all I know, you could be trying to lure me into a false sense of security so you can murder me when I least expect it and then devour my flesh or something!" The figure tilted its head as it gazed at me, and, if it had a face, I knew it would have been raising an eyebrow at me.

"OK. First off," it said, a hint of slight disturbance in its voice, "that is really gross. You really need to stop watching so many horror films. Secondly, it's really up to you if you choose to believe me or not." The shadow began to fidget back and forth after it said this, as if it were nervous or something. _Can ghosts get nervous? _I had no idea. "But…well, I hope that you do believe me. Because…"

"Because what?" I asked, wondering what the stranger (that insists that it isn't actually a stranger) seemed to need to tell me so badly. I gazed at the shadow, which was now twiddling its little ghost-like thumbs, waiting for it to start speaking again.

At the time, I had no idea how suddenly and drastically my life would change from the four simple words that the shadow whispered. Four simple words. Just four. However, those four simple words were words that a true hero could never, ever ignore.

"I need your help."

**NinjaTerra: And there you go! Chapter one! Now, I know that there are a ton of unanswered questions that I left hanging in this chapter, but don't worry. Most of the details will be explained in the next chapter. I hope to get the actual plot going pretty quickly, so I hope some people will continue to read this as I update. Anyway, please review! **


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